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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nBorn on Feb. 18, 1947, in the Bronx to Jewish parents, Engel worked as a teacher and guidance counselor for New York City public schools before earning his law degree and serving in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 1988.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll four of my grandparents were immigrants, Jewish immigrants from what\u2019s now Ukraine, who fled the pogroms of the early 20th century, looking for a safe haven and opportunity. And guess what? They found it in America,\u201d Engel told The Jerusalem Post in 2021. \u201cThey came here before World War I. If they hadn\u2019t come here, they almost certainly would\u2019ve perished in the Holocaust. This country has been a refuge to people who are hurting for many, many years, and I\u2019m grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representing parts of New York including Westchester County and the Bronx, Engel\u2019s time in office was marked by a consistent focus on foreign policy, including support for the NATO-led intervention in Kosovo in 1999 against Serbia and activism to protect Syrian civilians. He chaired the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee during the last years of his tenure.<\/p>\n
In Congress, Engel also built a reputation as a committed pro-Israel lawmaker, regularly supporting strong U.S.-Israel ties and maintaining relationships with Jewish and pro-Israel groups throughout his tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been proud to stand with our ally Israel, our closest friend in the Middle East and, I would argue, in the world throughout my career,\u201d Engel told the Jerusalem Post. \u201cI believe that the United States and Israel share an incredibly important partnership. And the cornerstone of this relationship is the support it receives from both sides of the aisle\u2026No one should play partisan politics with America\u2019s relationship with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engel\u2019s time in Congress ended in 2021 after he lost to Bowman, a progressive educator who was openly critical of the Israeli government and said that U.S. assistance to Israel should be conditioned on its behavior.<\/p>\n
Engel\u2019s defeat drew national attention and marked a broader turning point in the Democratic Party\u2019s longtime consensus on support for Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish Republicans have had plenty of disagreements with Rep. Engel during his 32 years in Congress, but his defeat is a blow to the historically bipartisan support for Israel in the US Congress,\u201d the Republican Jewish Coalition said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n
The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC eulogized Engel in a post on X Friday, describing him as a \u201csteadfast friend of the pro\u2011Israel community and an unabashed champion of the U.S.-Israel relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout his distinguished 32\u2011year career in Congress, including as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Engel worked tirelessly to strengthen and deepen the strategic alliance between the United States and Israel,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n
New York Governor Kathy Hochul also memorialized the late lawmaker in a post on X, writing, \u201cThe son of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Eliot Engel brought the best of the Bronx to Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who serves the Bronx and is one of the most outspoke pro-Israel voices in his party, called Engel \u201cone of the greatest champions the Bronx has ever had in Congress\u201d in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe served for more than three decades with unyielding dedication, fighting for his constituents and standing up for democracy around the world,\u201d Torres wrote. \u201cHe was a trailblazer for the Bronx in Washington, and a fierce advocate for Kosovo and the Albanian community at a time when few others were paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Engel is survived by his wife, Patricia; his daughter, Julia; his sons, Jonathan and Philip: his sister, Dori Kaplan; and three grandchildren. PJC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(JTA) \u2014 Eliot Engel, a Jewish New York Democrat who served more than three decades in Congress and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-390144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}